Great chapter, @DragonParadox. I always enjoy good world building. Makes me want to visit Nidal someday, in spite of the craziness.
I'm leaning toward the money. It gives us options and eventually we'll be able to spend it on improving our gear. There are not many good magic items that are so cheap, and Mina is not really hurting for spells. There are spells she could use, of course, but she only has so many spell slots to go around. She'll be learning 3rd level spells next level, too.
[X] Coin, simple and easy to spend, but will likely be less valuable overall than if you asked for something more specialized (1,000 gp)
Visiting would be... difficult. Ever since the end of the Shadowbreak the Black Triune has handed out very limited permits, mostly to Chelixians connected to House Thrune. Traders do sail into their ports, but...
Nisroch is the largest city in Nidal and also its most open. For most of the port's visitors that isn't saying much. The few ships that do dock here are closely inspected, and the streets are heavily patrolled. Finding little in the way of traditional port entertainment, most foreigners don't spend any more time in the company of the suspicious inhabitants than they have to
[x] A magic item, the pathfinders have many items useful for just the kind of exploration you have in mind, why not look through and claim one
of them (1225 gp equivalent value)
The chamber beyond the 'waiting room' is an odd mix of the familiar and strange: chairs carved in harsh geometric lines from unpolished stone are covered in colorful pillows with long teasels that sweep the floor while on those floors lie the pelts of strange sun-light dwelling beasts. You had wondered before why in the Taldan tongue the words for 'furs' and 'pelts' are near synonyms, you wonder no more. Pelts as small as the 'dogs' you had seen in Longacre, sporting large toughed tails, pelts large and sleek, ember-red and twice as long as you are tall, and in the center of the room is the pelt of an enormous white beast, its snarling head still attached and pointed at the door with glassy eyes. Upon that pelt strides what is sky dwarf woman who might perhaps have been mistaken for a short human of local stock from the warm sun-beaten tones of her features... if she wasn't also carrying around thirty-five pounds of bone, hide, and leather armor.
Thea Goldgather, as she introduces herself, does not seem overly happy at the sight of Sirim flowing like smoke among the rafters, though she does give Gorok an interested once-over. You think that's admiration of one warrior for another and not an attempt to size him up for treachery given or received. When Mina answers her greeting in some other harsher sounding tongue she starts and scowls.
"Sorry, sorry, it's just how I talk. Can't control it, just comes out in whatever tongue the person I'm talking to understands best."
"Then you'd best pray you don't meet a wildwood druid, they'll take your head as soon as look at you," she answers.
Over the course of Sirim's introductions her scowl only grows deeper... particularly when the shadow mage proclaims himself to have been field-promoted in Nisroch on Starday, Third of Desnus of the current year. That would be almost five turnings of the moon ago, a season past as it is counted in Nar Voth. It is the 'field promoted' though that sticks in Goldgather's craw even when he names the dates of past events and cypher that she checks against a booklet the harried initiate picks up for her. You make a mental note to figure out what a 'dead drop' is and what kind of galvanized corpse is used in making one.
Regardless, Sirim also delivers a message from 'Adellos Mayne', which he had written down beforehand. Why he had bothered to do so when the contents of the message are nothing more than a brief summation of the story he'd told you, Gorok, and Mina previously is not apparent until he points out that, divested of all his belongings, he had been the vessel of this urgent message which is to be sent to the High Lodge... which technically makes those who helped him get as far as Augustana courtiers.
Goldgather shakes her head, the rough tail of her hair bristling like a steel-mole's mane, but she doesn't argue, perhaps accustomed to such wordplay from agents. After all. who but the daring and inventive would take up a Pathfinder's life? Still, the tongue of the sky dwarfs remains similar enough to that of their Darklands kin that you can make out the words 'shade-fucker' among other choice insults as she stomps off to get your reward.
"She is actually getting us a reward though, right?" Mina asks worriedly as you are left to only to the company of the silent pelts.
"I think she'd be a lot more cheerful if she was going to try to kill us," you reassure her with Gorok adding: "Akorian knows talking-traps." After briefly trying to recall when you had encountered a trap that could speak you realize he means traps by treachery and feel yourself preen just a little.
The venture captain returns carrying an ordinary leather belt pouch, twice-patched and a little battered. You wonder at what's inside... as she opens it to reveal it's empty, then she closes it and speaks in a loud clear voice: "Reveal." And when she opens it again she pulls out a twelve-inch iron bar lined with a bewildering array of plates and spikes. Without a word she folds and twists it into a hammer, a pair of scissors, then pliers, a very serviceable looking shovel given that there can't have been that much metal in there surely, and finally a block and tackle. For the sake of your bewildered senses, at least it can't seem to make rope.
"There, a pouch to see you past unwelcome eyes and a tool to help you along the way, messenger," she hands the pouch to Gorok, perhaps expecting commiseration on the slipperiness of sorcerers. The iruxi just takes it with a nod of thanks. You and Mina might be the only ones feeling the edge of Sirim's cool amusement in your thoughts.
Pathfinder Pouch
Aura none; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 1,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description:
This nondescript belt pouch is quite popular among Pathfinders who need to smuggle items past snooping guards or government officials. Detect magic does not detect that it is magical (as per the magic aura spell), but the pouch acts as a very small bag of holding (contents limit 10 pounds, volume limit 2 cubic feet).
With a command word, the wearer can close or open the extradimensional space within the pouch; when closed, the pouch holds no more than a mundane belt pouch the size of a human fist, though objects within the extradimensional space remain stored, unreachable until the pouch is unsealed again. This allows the user to empty his pockets or even turn the pouch inside-out to prove he carries no contraband, and access the hidden goods later when in a safe place. Because of their non-magical auras, these pouches sometimes hold secret treasures for generations.
Traveler's Any-Tool
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 250 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description:
This implement at first seems to be nothing but a 12-inch iron bar lined with small plates and spikes. It can be folded, twisted, hinged, and bent to form almost any known tool. Hammers, shovels, even a block and tackle (without rope) are possible. It can duplicate any tool the wielder can clearly visualize that contains only limited moving parts, such as a pair of scissors, but not a handloom. It cannot be used to replace missing or broken parts of machines or vehicles unless a mundane tool would have done the job just as well.
The any-tool counts as a set of masterwork artisan's tools for most Craft or Profession skills (although very specialist crafts such as alchemy still require their own unique toolset). It is an ineffective weapon, always counting as an improvised weapon and never granting any masterwork bonus on attack rolls.
His manner turns more serious though as he once more addresses all three of you... four, for even the cat starts from where he had been dosing off in front of the fire: "Words of gratitude are fleeting things, like fires in the night, and yet know that you have mine and my admiration beside. Rare is the soul which at their first sight of a rampaging devil plots their doom and rarer the one who profits thereby. There is yet much we could gain by joining together in the seeking the remnants of the Age of Legends, treasures beside which the treasures of kings and princes are as these petty magics laid out before you, secrets to complete the broken records." As Mina starts to answer something he snaps a wisp of smoke off his tail with a quick shake: "No need for haste, consider my words as you complete your business in this city."
As you step back onto the gloomy street the words swirl through your mind like fine mead in a brass cup. Answers to the past and power for the present. Perhaps they would not gawk as much, or dare one hope, look on with something other than suspicion. For now you have other matters to attend to.
What do you do next?
[] Speak to Iolda about the rest of your pay
[] Seek out a temple of Pharasma to deliver the cursed ring to
-[] Write in who does the delivery
[] Find a solicitor in Oldtown who can make sense of the banknotes you found in the moldfolk cave
-[] Write in who does the delivery
[] Write in
Darklands Dictionary Steel-mole - Slow and ponderous steel-moles make the most of their resistance to the vitriolic secretions of common cave snails. When threatened it takes advantage of the stiffening of its iron infused neck mane to make itself seem larger than it is.
OOC: The choice on Sirim will come up when you guys are ready to leave Augustana for your next adventure, to give you more time to debate and decide.
I think it's finally time to settle this one? Then comes dealing with the phylactery (which might require some expenditure on our part), and finally the dark horse that is the banknotes, unless something else comes up.
Does this mean anything for us besides the payment we already got out of it? Or is this just a legality to get us the said payment, and we are free of any obligations to the Pathfinders?
Who do we talk to if we want to find out more about them? Is Sirim our only 'in' with them?
I think it's finally time to settle this one? Then comes dealing with phylactery (which might require some expenditure on our part), and finally the dark horse that is the banknotes, unless something else comes up.
Does this mean anything for us besides the payment we already got out of it? Or is this just a legality to get us the said payment, and we are free of any obligations to the Pathfinders?
Who do we talk to if we want to find out more about them? Is Sirim our only 'in' with them?
It is the legality that allowed him to get you a larger reward. He claimed you were contract courtiers in the employ of the High Lodge and you did technically check all the boxes.
I am pretty proud of finding those, not going to lie. Pathfinder has a lot of cool magic items, but many, too many even have eye-popping prices to the point where you wonder why any adventurer who gets their hands on the thing does not have to fight would be robbers daily and see off would be thieves nightly. These by contrast had a more reasonable cost for what might be given as simple rewards.
There comes a degree of wealth where the reward is so fantastical that the low chance that you can fence the thing is worth the high risk of death and then there comes a degree after that where a lot of people make that calculus.
There comes a degree of wealth where the reward is so fantastical that the low chance that you can fence the thing is worth the high risk of death and then there comes a degree after that where a lot of people make that calculus.
Darklands Dictionary Steel-mole - Slow and ponderous steel-moles make the most of their resistance to the vitriolic secretions of common cave snails. When threatened it takes advantage of the stiffening of its iron infused neck mane to make itself seem larger than it is.
OOC: The choice on Sirim will come up when you guys are ready to leave Augustana for your next adventure to give you more time to debate and decide.
Because they are heading to the Black Pit of Nargeroth the Terrible (TM) and this is the closest place with beds. Adventurers tend to head off to wild and untamed lands quite often by their nature.
A maps section has been added to the front page (man it's nice to just have maps I can post) with a map of Augustana including the location you are going to meet Iolda at...
Always nice to have a good map for reference. Ausustana is seems bigger now that we have the map to look at, even though I already knew it had a fairly large population.
I'm sure Cob, as our resident crafter, would love that multitool @DragonParadox, but what are the odds he just plays with it most of the time? Just turning it into all kinds of shapes and stuff for fun, lol.
Also, can we store the lich ring in the pouch? Would that be a safe place to keep it?
[X] Speak to Iolda about the rest of your pay
Best to ask since we have another possible party member offering services.
